GPS World

Tag: QZSS

  • Japan readies second Michibiki satellite for QZSS

    The second satellite in the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) is scheduled for launch in June.

    QZSS will be a satellite augmentation system for GPS in the region of Japan.

    The first Michibiki satellite was launched Sept. 11, 2010.

    Michibiki 2 will be launched aboard H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 34 from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Launch time is tentatively set for 9:20 a.m. (Japan Standard Time) from Yoshinobu Launch Complex, JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center. The exact date and time could vary, with a launch window planned for June 1-30.

  • NovAtel G-III Reference Receiver Technology Chosen for QZSS

    NovAtel G-III Reference Receiver Technology Chosen for QZSS

    The NovAtel G-III receiver.
    The NovAtel G-III receiver.

    NovAtel Inc. has entered an agreement with NEC Corporation to supply reference receiver products for use in the Quazi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS). QZSS is Japan’s regional satellite-based augmentation system.

    The NovAtel receivers to be used by QZSS are based on the company’s third-generation (G-III) family of reference receivers. Designed for integrity monitoring and reference measurement applications, the receivers track signals independently to provide precise code- and carrier-phase reference measurements as well as signal quality measurements and other integrity monitoring metrics. Housed in a 19-inch rack-mount enclosure with AC power supply and integral cooling fans, the G-III reference receivers provide continuous, reliable operation in a reference station environment, NovAtel said.

    The G-III receiver platform has been customized to meet the needs of individual satellite networks. In addition to the QZSS G-III product, NovAtel supplies WAAS G-III reference receivers to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) modernized Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) network and IRNSS G-III reference receivers for the ground control segment of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

  • Spectracom Adds India’s IRNSS, Japan’s QZSS to Simulator Capabilities

    Spectracom Adds India’s IRNSS, Japan’s QZSS to Simulator Capabilities

    Spectracom’s GSG-6 Series multi-frequency GNSS signal simulator. Photo: Spectracom
    Spectracom’s GSG-6 Series multi-frequency GNSS signal simulator. Photo: Spectracom

    Spectracom has added capability to simulate India’s global navigation satellite system, IRNSS, and Japan’s regional satellite system, QZSS, to its GSG-6 Series multi-frequency GNSS signal simulator. The simulator is designed to be field upgradeable to simulate all current and future GNSS constellations so current customers can benefit from these features without the need for a factory return in most cases.

    “Spectracom understands the need for system developers and integrators to be compatible with various GNSS systems. Support for multiple constellations is a requirement in many markets and additional satellites add signal diversity for improved reliability,” said Spectracom Global Sales and Marketing Vice President Rohit Braggs. “Our easy-to-use, compact and affordable GNSS simulator can now be configured with IRNSS and QZSS capability in addition to the big four: GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo. Our customers can buy what they need now and easily upgrade in the future, often times without a hardware upgrade.”

    In anticipation of the deployment of new GNSS systems, Spectracom ensures that every GSG simulator that leaves the factory is tested for compliance with all L-band signal frequency and modulation specifications as defined in their ICDs, the company said.

    The Series 6 multi-frequency simulator is fully capable of all four bands of any system: L1 / E1 / B1; L2 / L2C; L5 / E5 / B2; and E6 / B3.

    “As we have seen with our recent roll-out of Beidou and Galileo signal compatibility, when the need for new signals arise, we will offer those capabilities with a simple upgrade path,” Braggs said. “This ensures our customer’s investment is always protected.”

  • Telit Introduces Jupiter SL869-V2S GPS Module

    Telit Introduces Jupiter SL869-V2S GPS Module

    The Jupiter SL869-V2S GPS module. Photo: Telit Wireless Solutions
    The Jupiter SL869-V2S GPS module. Photo: Telit Wireless Solutions

    Telit Wireless Solutions, a global provider of high-quality machine-to-machine (M2M) modules and services, today debuted the Jupiter SL869-V2S GPS module, designed for easy migration between a full-GNSS solution for top-ranked applications and a simple GPS-only solution for less demanding applications.

    The Jupiter SL869 V2S supports GPS as well as QZSS constellations and is ROM based. Geo-location data is delivered using NMEA protocol through a standard UART port. It supports ephemeris file injection (A-GPS) as well as Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) for increased position accuracy. Its onboard software engine is able to locally predict ephemeris three days in advance starting from ephemeris data broadcast by GNSS satellites, received by the module and stored in the host flash memory.

    Key benefits include:

    • Pin-to-pin compatibility with JN3/xL869 family
    • Same protocol used in SL869 V2
    • Straightforward migration between full-GNSS solutions and GPS-only solutions
    • SBAS support, for increased position accuracy
    • Assisted GPS

    The SL869 V2S can replace the JN3, SL869 or SL869 V2 — allowing customers to design once and interchangeably mount the appropriate solution depending on the required features. The xL869 is Telit’s GNSS unified form-factor family, which allows customers to select among different GNSS technologies and feature sets. Modules in this family are offered in a 16 x 12.2 mm, 24-pad, LCC package.

    “The new SL869 V2S module is designed to be easily swapped with other xL869 modules for enhanced simplicity and scalability,” said Taneli Tuurnala, CEO of Telit GNSS Solutions. “It is an ideal example of how buying a module from Telit enables our customers to avert the need to keep track of the latest chipset technology on their own. We keep them on top of the best available technology, pre-packaged in a module that is easy to replace as needed, without having to redesign their entire application to stay up to date.”

     

  • QZSS May Expand to Meet Japan’s Surveillance Needs

    The Japan News is reporting that the Japanese Committee on the National Space Policy has compiled a draft proposal that includes increasing the number of quasi-zenith satellites (QZSS), Japan’s satellite navigation system, from the current single satellite to a total of four.

    Currently, Japan is operating only one quasi-zenith satellite, named Michibiki.

    The increase would be made to strengthen Japan’s overall surveillance systems, in light of developments such as China’s maritime expansion. “China’s high-pressure maritime advances have become a menace to the security of countries in Asia. Continued vigilance is also required against North Korea’s missile launches and nuclear weapons development program,” according an editorial published by The Japan News.

    The additional QZSS satellites would presumably supplement Japan’s surveillance satellites with positioning information. Japan currently has four information-gathering satellites, which lack the flexibility to boost the accuracy of ground surveillance activities and swiftly grasp movements of objects such as vessels at sea.

    “For surveillance activities, acquisition of high-precision positioning information using space technology is also important. Only the global positioning system (GPS) run by the United States is currently reliable for this purpose,” the editorial said.

    A four-satellite QZSS system will allow positioning surveillance of all regions around the clock. Based on the proposal, the government is expected to revise the Basic Plan on Space Policy within the year.

    The proposal also stipulates that the country should aim to operate seven quasi-zenith satellites as early as possible, which would allow stable management of the system, according to The Japan News.

  • How to Survive a Total Constellation Outage

    How to Survive a Total Constellation Outage

    Yesterday we posted news of an 11-hour downtime for the full GLONASS constellation, due to an upload of bad ephemerides. Coincidentally, during that 11-hour period, the mass-market chip company Broadcom was conducting multi-constellation receiver tests in Asia. Frank van Diggelen, Broadcom’s chief GNSS scientist and vice president says, “We have definitive data to show how a multi-constellation receiver survives such an outage.”

    Here are the pictures, and the story they tell.

    Test data coincident with the GLONASS ephemeris disruption of April 1 and 2 showing conclusively how a GPS/GLONASS/QZSS/BEIDOU receiver survives the complete disruption of one of the constellations.

    On April 2 at 1:00 a.m. Moscow time, bad ephemeris was uploaded to all satellites (see chart at the bottom of this story).

    There are two receivers shown here, from two different manufacturers, both in smartphones. The yellow dots are for a GPS/GLONASS receiver; the blue dots are from the Broadcom 47531 receiver which tracks GPS/GLONASS/QZSS/BeiDou signals simultaneously. The 47531 receiver includes logic to use redundant measurements to check the validity of all measurements. It successfully identified and removed the bad GLONASS ephemeris 100 percent of the time, as can be seen by the continuity and accuracy of the positions.

    Broadcom2

    Here is the satellite outage chart from yesterday’s story.  All GLONASS satellites were restored to healthy state after the 11-hour interruption.

    Current plot from the Roscosmos GLONASS Information-Analytical Centre. Things are almost back to normal this morning.
    Current plot from the Roscosmos GLONASS Information-Analytical Centre. Things are almost back to normal this morning.

     

     

  • 2C or Not 2C: The First Live Broadcast of GPS CNAV Messages

    By Oliver Montenbruck, Richard B. Langley, and Peter Steigenberger

    Over the past several years, some users of the GPS navigation system have already benefitted from the addition of various new signals in addition to the legacy C/A- and P(Y)-code. With the introduction of the Block IIR-M satellites in 2005, a new civil signal (L2C) was transmitted on the L2 frequency, and a new signal on a new frequency (L5) was introduced as a standard signal with the Block IIF satellites beginning in 2010. These new signals provide direct access to dual-frequency observations and thus enable improved ionospheric corrections for civil, including aeronautical, users. In addition, a new Civil Navigation (CNAV) broadcast message has been defined in the GPS Interface Specifications (IS-GPS-200 and IS-GPS-705).

    This message will be transmitted jointly on the L2C and L5 signals and provides a variety of useful new parameters. Compared to the legacy L1 C/A-code navigation message, the CNAV message also offers an increased flexibility concerning the type, sequence, and repeat rate of specific messages.

    CNAV messages have already been broadcast over the past two years by the Michibiki (QZS-1) satellite of the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), which shares many aspects of the GPS signal design. In contrast to this, Block IIR-M and IIF GPS satellites have only transmitted dummy messages so far and a fully operational CNAV transmission is only foreseen once the ongoing modernization of the GPS control segment has been completed.

    Triggered by various interest groups, the Global Positioning Systems Directorate has just conducted a first test campaign with live CNAV transmissions on L2C and L5 over the two-week period from June 15 to 29 (see Global Positioning System Modernized Civil Navigation (CNAV) Live-Sky Broadcast Test Plan.) It served as a first opportunity for end users and receiver manufacturers to test the decoding and use of the new messages under a wide range of different configurations.

    CNAV messages have a common length of 300 data bits and are identified by a message type number that signifies their contents. The messages presently defined for GPS are summarized in Table 1. For QZSS, complementary messages have been established, which enable, among other features, a rebroadcast of GPS-specific data to QZSS users.

    Table 1. Summary of CNAV message types transmitted by space vehicles (SVs). Messages marked by an asterisk were transmitted during the recent CNAV test campaign.

    Message

    Type

    CNAV Message Title

    Function/Purpose

    0*

    		 Default Default message (transmitted when no message data is available)

    10*

    		 Ephemeris 1 SV position parameters for the transmitting SV

    11*

    		 Ephemeris 2 SV position parameters for the transmitting SV

    12*

    		 Reduced Almanac Reduced almanac data packets for seven SVs

    13

    		 Clock Differential Correction SV clock differential correction parameters

    14

    		 Ephemeris Differential Correction SV ephemeris differential correction parameters

    15*

    		 Text Text (29 eight-bit ASCII characters)

    30*

    		 Clock, Iono & Group Delay SV clock correction parameters, ionospheric and group delay correction parameters (inter-signal correction parameters)

    31

    		 Clock & Reduced Almanac SV clock correction parameters, reduced almanac data packets for four SVs

    32*

    		 Clock & EOP SV clock correction parameters, Earth orientation parameters; Earth-centered, Earth-fixed to Earth-centered inertial coordinate transformation

    33*

    		 Clock & UTC SV clock correction parameters, Coordinated Universal Time parameters

    34

    		 Clock & Differential Correction SV clock correction parameters, SV clock and ephemeris differential correction parameters

    35*

    		 Clock & GGTO SV clock correction parameters, GPS to GNSS time-offset parameters

    36

    		 Clock & Text SV clock correction parameters, text (18 eight-bit ASCII characters)

    37

    		 Clock & Midi Almanac SV clock correction parameters, midi (mid-accuracy) almanac parameters

    Other than the legacy L1 navigation message, which adheres to a fixed order of subframes, the sequence of CNAV messages can be varied widely to provide users with an optimized set of low latency information and parameters that change infrequently. As a baseline, the two ephemeris message types 10 and 11 are combined with any of the clock-and-auxiliary data messages (types 30 through 37) to provide users with the orbit and clock data of the received satellites. With a transmission duration of 12 seconds per CNAV message on L2C, a minimum of 36 seconds is required to transfer this information to the user if no other messages are transmitted. On L5, which operates at twice the data rate, a new frame is transmitted once every 6 seconds yielding a minimum of 18 seconds for the broadcast of ephemeris and clock data.

    The recent test campaign started at 18:00 GPS Time on Saturday, June 15, 2013, with the transmission of message types 10, 11, 15, and 30 on a first space vehicle (PRN24) and included PRN12 from 18:42 onwards. Other space vehicles were sequentially phased in until all active IIR-M and IIF satellites (except for the recently launched IIF-4 satellite) transmitted CNAV on the supported signals. When the test ended exactly two weeks later (June 29, 18:00 GPST), all participating satellites were transmitting a complex master frame of 15 x 4 = 60 individual messages, which was repeated once every 12 minutes (on L2C). Each minor frame comprised the two ephemeris messages and at least one clock-data message (see Table 2).

    Table 2. Sequence of message types in a CNAV master frame.

    Message Types

    10

    11

    15

    30

    10

    11

    32

    33

    10

    11

    12

    35

    10

    11

    12

    30

    10

    11

    12

    33

    10

    11

    12

    35

    10

    11

    12

    30

    10

    11

    32

    33

    10

    11

    15

    35

    10

    11

    32

    30

    10

    11

    12

    33

    10

    11

    12

    35

    10

    11

    12

    30

    10

    11

    12

    33

    10

    11

    12

    35

    Other messages included a reduced almanac (message type 12) and a text message (message type 15) with dummy content (“THIS IS A GPS TEST MESSAGE.”)

    The CNAV data were recorded by selected multi-GNSS monitoring stations of the German Aerospace Establishment (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt or DLR) and the University of New Brunswick (UNB), which were specifically configured to record raw GPS navigation frames in addition to the normal observation data. The stations are located at Singapore (SIN0); Sydney, Australia (UNX2); Maui, U.S.A. (MAO0); and Hartebeesthoek, South Africa (HRAG); as well as Fredericton, Canada (UNB) and are equipped with either Javad Delta-G2/G3TH or NovAtel OEM6 receivers. Following initial validation, the raw and decoded data from the CNAV test will be made available to interested users through the Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) of the International GNSS Service (see http:/igs.org/mgex) to facilitate the development of user software and suitable data formats (such as an extended RINEX navigation message format).

    The CNAV orbit and clock data were updated once every two hours and offer a slightly higher bit resolution than their legacy counterparts. However, the accuracy of the ephemeris data has not yet been evaluated nor compared to that of the L1 C/A-code navigation data.

    As indicated above, the CNAV data can also provide a particularly compact form of almanac data known as the reduced almanac. It does not offer clock information (that is not normally required for a signal search) and assumes a circular orbit, which reduces the overall accuracy. Still, it can be transmitted (and repeated) in a much shorter time interval than the legacy almanac, which requires a total of 12.5 minutes. Each reduced almanac message (message type 12) provides orbit information for a total of seven satellites and it takes a set of five such messages to convey information for a complete constellation. For the master frame layout described above, the full constellation reduced almanac is repeated twice within 12 minutes on L2C (and half this time on L5).

    Novel types of CNAV data not covered by the legacy navigation message include the differential code biases (also known as inter-system corrections or ISCs), which are required for pseudorange-based positioning with signals other than the legacy P(Y)-code (in addition to the established Timing Group Delay parameter or TGD). An overview of TGD and ISC values broadcast by the various satellites participating in the CNAV test is given in Table 3.

    Table 3. Differential code biases (in nanoseconds) of GPS Block IIR-M and IIF satellites broadcast during the test campaign as part of the message type 30 CNAV messages.

    SV Type

    SVN

    PRN

    TGO

    ISC L1CA

    ISC L2C

    ISC L5I5

    ISC L5Q5

    IIR-M

    48

    07

    -10.71

    -0.84

    6.52

    IIR-M

    50

    05

    -10.24

    -0.32

    5.41

    IIR-M

    52

    31

    -13.04

    -0.55

    7.36

    IIR-M

    53

    17

    -10.24

    -0.84

    6.17

    IIR-M

    55

    15

    -10.24

    -0.47

    5.62

    IIR-M

    57

    29

    -9.31

    -0.76

    5.06

    IIR-M

    58

    12

    -12.11

    -0.76

    6.64

    IIF

    62

    25

    5.59

    -2.07

    -5.24

    -0.38

    -0.87

    IIF

    63

    01

    8.38

    -2.30

    -7.57

    0.38

    2.15

    IIF

    65

    24

    2.79

    -0.26

    -2.27

    2.27

    3.70

    Another important achievement is the provision of Earth orientation parameters (EOP) in message 32, which provides GPS users with access to the celestial reference frame.  EOPs were transmitted during the second test week and updated on a daily basis (see Table 4). Knowledge of these parameters is of particular interest for GPS-based orbit determination and navigation of spacecraft (in low Earth orbit), which is preferably referred to an inertial rather than an Earth-fixed coordinate system.

    Table 4. Daily Earth orientation parameters from the CNAV test campaign (pole coordinates and dUT1 (UT1-UTC) time differences and derivatives).

    Epoch (GPST)

    x_p

    (arcseconds)

    x_p_dot

    (arcseconds per day)

    y_p

    (arcseconds)

    y_p_dot

    (arcseconds per day)

    dUT1

    (seconds)

    dUT1_dot

    (seconds per day)

    June 22, 0:00

    0.13517

    0.00104

    0.39657

    -0.00054

    0.06341

    -0.00046

    June 23, 0:00

    0.13621

    0.00102

    0.39604

    -0.00056

    0.06295

    -0.00049

    June 24, 0:00

    0.13740

    0.00101

    0.39535

    -0.00058

    0.06231

    -0.00053

    June 25, 0:00

    0.13815

    0.00099

    0.39487

    -0.00060

    0.06164

    -0.00063

    June 26, 0:00

    0.13846

    0.00096

    0.39443

    -0.00062

    0.06078

    -0.00067

    June 27, 0:00

    0.13885

    0.00094

    0.39381

    -0.00064

    0.06004

    -0.00067

    June 28, 0:00

    0.13947

    0.00093

    0.39310

    -0.00066

    0.05909

    -0.00063

    June 29, 0:00

    0.13987

    0.00090

    0.39246

    -0.00068

    0.05842

    -0.00053

    Overall, CNAV offers exciting prospects for improved GPS utilization and users may look forward to the next test campaigns, which will tentatively be conducted once every six months.

    As a side note, it should be mentioned that individual satellites could be observed to transmit various types of non-standard CNAV messages as well as CNAV messages with improper data (such as an invalid week count) after the end of the main test campaign. Various receivers in the MGEX network, which were processing the received CNAV messages internally and which put full confidence in their proper contents, were mislead by such information. During the actual test campaign, all data appeared fully valid and no problems were reported by the stations.

    OLIVER MONTENBRUCK is the head of the GNSS Technology and Navigation Group at DLR’s German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.

    RICHARD B. LANGLEY is a professor in the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

    PETER STEIGENBERGER is  a staff member in the Institut für Astronomische und Physikalische Geodäsie of the Technische Universität München (TUM) in Munich, Germany.

     

  • Pacific PNT: GNSS, SBAS Updates

    The status of world GNSS, and augmentation systems in the Pacific region, highlighted the policy session of the Institute of Navigtion Pacific PNT Conference being held this week in Honolulu, Hawaii. Here are a few highlights:

    BeiDou-Logo-150x142BeiDou. Construction of the second phase of BeiDou has been completed; further launches for the third phase – constellation completion – are on hold until tests of the existing 14-satellite constellation are complete, according to Xiancheng Ding, Senior Advisor, China Satellite Navigation Office. As of December 27, 2012, BeiDou achieved full operational capability for most of the Asia-Pacific region. The full constellation is now expected to be completed by 2020.

    Other accomplishments include releasing the BeiDou Interface Control Document and manufacture of BeiDou chips for end-user applications. By the end of June, some manufacturers will release BeiDou chips in China, Ding said.

    Also in December, BeiDou introduced a new logo (at right).

    Yuanxi Yang (China National Administration of GNSS and Applications) presented statistics showing that BeiDou+GPS provides greater accuracy than GPS alone. For instance, the RMS of BeiDou+GPS kinematic positioning by using differential carrier phase is about 20 percent better than that of GPS alone, Yang said.

    By itself, existing BeiDou constellation system accuracy is better than 10 meters, timing better than 20 nanoseconds, and velocity accuracy is better than 0.2 meters/second.

    In all, BeiDou is composed of 14 satellites: five GEO, five IGSO, and four MEO. The full constellation (by 2020)  will consist of 35 satellites: 5 GEO and 30 non-GEO (a mixture of MEO and IGSO satellites).

    GPS. Keynote speaker David A. Turner (U.S. Department of State) shared his time with surprise GLONASS speaker Sergey Revnivykh (International Committee on GNSS, ICG). In his GNSS Policy and Program Update, Turner provided the dates by which three new civil signals will be on 24 GPS satellites.

    • The L2C signal is a developmental signal broadcasting from 10 GPS Satellites. It began launching in 2005 with GPS Block IIR(M) satellites, and is expected to be available on 24 satellites around 2018.
    • The L5 signal is a developmental signal broadcasting from three GPS satellites. It began launching in 2010 with Block IIF satellites, and is expected to be available on 24 GPS satellites around 2021.
    • The L1C signal begins launching in 2015 with GPS III; available on 24 GPS satellites around 2026.

    “We have an increasing number of signals, increasing capability, and increasing level of service as we continue to evolve the constellation,” Turner said.

    GLONASS. The next GLONASS satellite will be launched this Friday, April 26, Revnivykh said. This will be a GLONASS-M satellite, number 47. The first launch of a new generation GLONASS K satellite is scheduled for 2015.

    Revnivykh stressed GLONASS’ role as a global utility. “We consider international cooperation is essential for all GNSS, and we consider GLONASS an essential part of the international multi-GNSS system,” he said. He stressed the importance of compatibility and interoperability as key to this policy.

    In 2012, GLONASS performed with an average accuracy better than formally required, he said. GLONASS is in worldwide use, and positioning has improved by a factor of 10, from 35 meters to about 3 meters since the first satellites were launched. Using both GPS + GLONASS provides 1.5 times better high-precision measurements, Revnivykh said.

    The new GLONASS program for 2020 for GLONASS sustainment, development, and use includes GLONASS M, K1, and K2 satellites; the positioning accuracy objective is to go from the current 2.8 meters to 0.6 meters.

    Aviation. Chris Hegarty (MITRE) presented an FAA Navigation Programs Overview on behalf of the scheduled speaker Deborah Lawrence (FAA) who was unable to attend. He noted that United Airlines has begun GBAS operations in Houston.

    In answer to a funding question, he said, “The sequestration is not expected to have a positive effect on schedule, but the presented timeline for APNT is the FAA’s current best estimate. Congress has some tough decisions before them, and I wouldn’t want to speculate on potential schedule impacts. In the words of Yogi Berra, predicting is hard, especially when it involves the future.”

    Korean SBAS. Changdon Kee (Seoul National University) shared plans for a Korean SBAS. In South Korea, LPV availability is 49.4% compared to 90.6% in Japan. “Korea needs its own system,” Kee said.

    Phase 3 of the SBAS development could start by the end of September, depending on funding. It will include open service multifunctional GEO satellites interoperable with other SBASs. A pseudolite demonstration system will be completed in 2014, clearing the way for the beginning of Phase 3.

    In all, the system will include five reference stations, two master stations, two ground uplink stations, and two GEO satellites (the main GEO by 2018 and a backup by 2020).

    The Korean SBAS open service system will provide GPS L1 augmentation, begin operation in 2020, and support aviation, land and maritime users. A test operation system will provide GPS L1 and L5 augmentation. The system is expected to be fully operational by 2021, with service available throughout Asia.

    Michibiki-AlanJapan’s QZSS. Hiroyuki Noda (Office of National Space Policy, Japan) said three more satellites for this augmentation system will be launched by the end of the decade, with the service beginning in 2018. In September 2012, the Japan cabinet made the commitment to accelerate development of the system. The first satellite, launched in 2010 (QZS-1, aka Michibiki) is performing as expected.

    QZSS is expected to improve positioning availability from 90% to 99.8% in Japan. QZSS will not only improve positioning in the Asia-Pacific region, but is expected to improve the capacity to respond to natural disasters, Noda said.

  • Japan to Expand QZSS with Three Birds, Ground Control

    The Japanese government has ordered three navigation satellites from Mitsubishi Electric Corp. to expand the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), reports Spaceflight Now. QZSS augments GPS navigation signals for users in the Asia-Pacific region.

    NEC Corporation has also been awarded a contract, for the Ground Control Segment.

    Japan’s Cabinet Office announced the QZSS expansion on March 29, approving a $526 million contract with Mitsubishi Electric for the construction of three satellites for launch before the end of 2017. Two of the spacecraft will be placed in inclined orbits, and one satellite will operate in geostationary orbit over the equator.

    Michibiki-Alan
    Michibiki, the website version.

    NEC Corp. will operate QZSS for 15 years under a $1.2 billion contract that covers the design, verification and maintenance of the QZSS ground system.

    Michibiki, launched in September 2010, is Japan’s first QZSS.

  • New Furuno Multi-GNSS Receiver Chips Available this Summer

    The Furuno eRideOPUS 7.
    The Furuno eRideOPUS 7.

    Furuno Electric Co., Ltd., has announced that new multi-GNSS receiver chips eRideOPUS 6 and eRideOPUS 7 will be available in August. The new receiver chips are multi-GNSS compliant single-chip LSIs, capable of concurrently receiving signals from multiple satellites in GNSS systems and satellite-based augmentation systems, as well as Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System. Both chips receive signals from GPS and Galileo; the eRideOPUS 7 also receives GLONASS signals.

    The ability of concurrently receiving GNSS/GNSS augmentation signals from multiple satellites from different satellite services means that the receivers have more probability of acquiring a greater number of satellites at any single time. Subsequently, position stability as well as accuracy will be greatly improved, minimizing the chance of a position lost. Also, the receiver chips incorporate an enhanced level of noise rejection capability, implementing the anti-jamming function as well as the improvement of multipath mitigation.

    Time-to-first-fix capability of the existing eRideOPUS 5 (no more than 1 second when hot started) is retained in these new receiver chips with a combination of A-GPS compatibility and self-ephemeris extraction. Moreover, the position update rate of the new receiver chips is greatly improved, achieving a 10-Hz update (every 0.1 second), which is twice as fast as the capability achieved by eRideOPUS 5.

    The new receiver chips are capable of dead-reckoning navigation, using a gyro sensor and vehicle speed pulse signals, a gyro sensor and an acceleration sensor, and wheel tick data taken from a CAN-Bus network, achieving high positioning accuracy even in locations where satellite signal reception is not available, such as inside tunnels.

    In May 2013, Furuno is planning to start the delivery of evaluation kits for the receiver chips so that third-party manufacturers can evaluate the feasibility of incorporating the receiver chips into their products, and in August 2013, the new compact GNSS receiver module GN-86/GN-87 as well as
    dead-reckoning-capable GV-86/GV-87, using these new receiver chips, will be made available for automotive navigation systems as well as eCall systems.

  • u-blox Launches u-blox 7 GPS, GLONASS and QZSS Modules

    u-blox, the Swiss positioning and wireless module and chip company, has announced its latest multi-GNSS receiver modules MAX-7, NEO-7 and LEA-7 in u-blox’s form factors. They support all satellite positioning systems in operation today: GPS, GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS. The modules target telematics applications such as asset and fleet management as well as portable tracking devices.

    “Each MAX-7, NEO-7 and LEA-7 variant delivers fast, accurate and reliable GLONASS and GPS positioning with the industry’s lowest power consumption.” said Daniel Ammann, executive VP of positioning product development at u-blox. “Both GPS AND GLONASS modes perform even better than combined GPS/GLONASS solutions available on the market today.”

    All u-blox 7 generation modules are pin-to-pin compatible with previous u-blox 6 and u-blox 5 families allowing easy upgrade from existing designs. Each module is available in cost-effective variants (such as MAX-7C; NEO-7M) as well as performance optimized variants (MAX-7Q, MAX-7W, NEO-7N, LEA-7N).

    u-blox 7 modules use GPS/GNSS chips qualified according to AEC-Q100 and are manufactured at ISO/TS 16949 certified sites. Each module is intensively inspected and tested during production. The modules are fully qualified according to ISO 16750 – “Environmental conditions and electrical testing for electrical and electronic equipment for road vehicles” to provide high durability and reliability.

    All modules comply with green/halogen free standards.

    First variants available will be NEO-7N (November 2012) and MAX-7C (December 2012).